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Just weeks after Governor Christie pocket vetoed last session’s “smart gun” bill sponsored by State Senator Loretta Weinberg (D37), this session’s newly introduced version of the exact same bill (now numbered S816) sailed through committee in a straight partisan vote on January 28 and is now scheduled for a vote in the full Senate on Thursday, February 11.

While S816 would roll back the ban on conventional handguns from New Jersey’s 2002 “smart gun” law, the bill is badly tainted because it swaps in a new mandate in its place, forcing every New Jersey firearms dealer to stock and display smart guns for sale – essentially compelling market acceptance of the technology instead of letting the free market decide.

The effort to coerce smart guns onto the market by bullying dealers suggests that politicians will be back with their ban on all conventional handguns soon after an artificial market for the new and unproven technology has been created.